An
airplane loaded with 30 passengers crashes off runway 33. The
aircraft breaks into several sections and parts become involved in a
flammable liquid fire. Victims are scattered around the scene, some
trapped in wreckage. Many are severely injured. The airport
tower immediately dispatches the airport ARFF team with Truck 820 and RIV
816. The Hyannis FD responds with its foam pumper and other
apparatus as a "Phase 2 Heavy" is declared along with a level 2 MCI.
Mutual aid responds from 8 communities to assist. The fire is
controlled, victims are extricated, patients are triaged, treated, and
transported to the local hospital. Some require decontamination and
the new MDU (Massachusetts Decontamination Unit) is deployed.
Barnstable Police respond with their state of the art command and
communications vehicle. The State Police helicopter hovers overhead
searching with an infrared camera for a missing victim lost in the woods.
A Coast Guard helicopter and Falcon Jet stand by to transport patients to
trauma centers. Barnstable County Control and Barnstable CMED
coordinate mutual aid, communications, and MCI protocols as Cape Cod
Hospital gears up to accept the severely injured. The chaos is
quickly brought under control utilizing the Incident Command System and
area Mass Casualty Protocols. This was only a drill, part of a
required drill at the airport and hospital. The system was tested,
skills were reviewed, lessons were learned, and the dozens of personnel
involved were prepared for the real disasters, large and small, to come in
the future.